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LEAD Brevard's Leadership Brevard Class of 2018 Leadership Action Project Presentation.
Guardian Ad Litem (GAL), 18th Circuit
“Encouraging Volunteers to Take Leadership Roles”
Currently, 300 children appointed to GAL have no volunteers to assist them. The program is committed to providing leadership roles for their volunteers; short term goal: identify barriers for Volunteer Team Leader recruitment – Intermediate goal: increase the number of trained Volunteer Team Leaders, recruit and retain 25 new leaders by mid-2018 – long term goal: empower volunteer team leaders to help recruit new volunteers and help in the retention of current volunteers.

During our 2nd meeting and working in conjunction with Carol Jewell, we developed the following three goals: Set up a progression ladder for team leaders (a standardized timeline which would incorporate trainings and refernce materials) Formalize/create volunteer team leader training (there was a good deal of material scattered around which needed to be consolidated and organized into a cohesive training program Create tools to market the team leader roles (to include items such as tracking mechanisms so that GAL could know when a volunteer had been in role long enough to most likely be ready for a volunteer leader role, marketing materials to encourage volunteers to become leaders, recognition for current leaders, etc.

2.
What is GAL?
Citizen volunteer program where citizen volunteers become part
of a court program to represent the best interests of abused and
neglected children
A GAL is a representative for the child - before the court, social
service agencies, and the community
GAL’s are much more than court representatives – they also
become mentors, role-models, and support systems for the
children they represent
GAL’s conduct independent investigations, collect information
and examine records concerning the child, and uses this
information to make recommendations on what is best for the
child

3.
GAL’s initial expectations/needs:
 Initially, GAL’s expectations were somewhat
broad
 Started out thinking the goal was to recruit
more citizens to become GAL volunteers, but
this was not the case
 Focus – to engage current GAL volunteers to
step up to a volunteer leader role
 Volunteer leader roles were found to be broad
and undefined, and current GAL volunteers
weren’t stepping up to the plate to move into
volunteer leader roles
 Lack of clarity regarding volunteer leader role
descriptions, training, and marketing

4.
Roadblocks and how
to overcome
 Understanding the true intent of the project and its goals
 Facilitated meetings with GAL team and Leadership Brevard team to better understand
project and goals
 Learning about a process/program that is foreign to us
 Engaged GAL team and GAL volunteers in discussions and meetings
 Invited GAL volunteers and volunteer leaders to meetings to discuss their needs and
feedback about the program and possible improvements to processes
 Narrowing down project into manageable tasks
 Broke down larger team into 3 smaller teams to accomplish main tasks of project
 Measuring success
 Discussed what success would look like to GAL team
 Plan to test the training program with the upcoming group of new GAL volunteers

5.
The process GAL provided
broad goals
Team established
three major goals
Decided to form
three small group
teams to tackle
three goals

7.
Action Item 1: Set up a “progression
ladder” for volunteer leaders
 Team members: Jason & Stephanie
 Action Items:
 Create a plan/progression ladder to assist in the organizational structure to
maintain expectations and retention of volunteer leaders
 Create a flow chart to assist in creating expectations for volunteer leaders while
creating a progression of development through training and mentoring

11.
GAL Volunteer Leader Roles &
Responsibilities
 Community Promoter: Recruit Volunteers and Raise Awareness of GAL program
in the community
 Attend community events and promote GAL program
 Identify opportunities with in community to raise program awareness
 Coordinate with Friends of Children of Brevard to support organization
 Resources:
 Recruiter ( employee of GAL) will provide schedule of opportunities to attend community
events
 Recruiter will post schedule of events and encourage community promoter attendance
 Recruiter will provide promotional materials for community promoter
 Recruiter will provide “elevator speech” for community promoter to use at events
 Recruiter will educate community promoters on FAQ’s and important message to
communicate at events.
 Friends of Children of Brevard will provide opportunities to attend events, to provide in
events and use social media to spread the word.

12.
GAL Volunteer Leader Roles & Responsibilities
 Regional Rap Session Leader: Provide GAL volunteers a forum to meet other volunteers in
their area. Leader will discuss program news and facilitate conversations that allow
volunteers to express frustrations & successes regarding their GAL experience
 Coordinate with group of regional rap session leaders to schedule monthly session at various
locations throughout the county.
 Recommendation: These should occur once a month, days and times to be determined by Rap
Session Leader with input from attendees. The location should be consistent and strategic
to geographical locations in the county.
 Recommendation: Bi-annually attendance is required for first year program volunteers.
 Recommendation: create agenda to be used at all rap sessions
 Operational update from CAM or Program Director
 Review monthly newsletter
 Open forum for attendee issues
 Opportunities for improvement
 Success stories
 Submit sign in sheet from session
 Resources:
 CAM and program director for pertinent program information that should be shared with the
group.
 Other Rap Session Leaders
 Recommendation Rap session leaders meet bi annually to discuss the sessions and how they can
become more effective.

13.
GAL Volunteer Leader Roles & Responsibilities
 Mentor: To sustain the longevity and effectiveness of the GAL volunteer program. GAL
will provide qualified volunteers with the training to successfully transition from a
volunteer to a Mentor.
 Reviewing assigned cases to identify objectives and outline appropriate tasks
 Accompany new volunteer to first home visits and provide guidance for compilation of required
written report.
 Work with child advocate coordinator to provide feedback to new volunteer regarding
observations made at initial home visit.
 Provide guidance when submitting reports for court.
 Provide insight as to what to expect when presenting in court and the overall court processes
involved with the GAL program.
 Be available as a resource for new GAL volunteers to discuss the application of policies and
procedures covered in their training while reinforcing the GAL code of conduct.
 Provide constructive feedback to the new volunteer and the program coordinator to help
promote and encourage the new volunteers and shore up and weaknesses present
 Resources:
 CAM
 Mentor Training Program
 Mentor Training Materials “aka Elaine’s cheat sheet”
 Program Director

14.
Action Item 3: Create tools to market
the volunteer leader roles
 Team Members: Jessica, Michael, & Kim
 Action items:
 Create sortable tracking spreadsheet to include all current GAL volunteers &
leaders, including data regarding how long they have been in role
 Create marketing “flyers” promoting the three volunteer leader roles to encourage
GAL volunteers to step up to volunteer leader roles
 Create recognition/information about current and new GAL team leaders – took the
form of a GAL newsletter template

15.
Sortable
tracking
sheet
With information
gathered from Carol, we
created a sortable Excel
tracking sheet
Excel sheet includes
names of current GAL
volunteers, sworn date,
and team leader role (as
applicable)
GAL can utilize this sheet
to quickly identify (based
on years of service) who
is potentially ready for a
volunteer leader role and
reach out to them

16.
Marketing “flyers” for volunteer leader
roles
 Created three separate “flyers” designed to market each of the three
volunteer leader roles
 Can be used by GAL to send out via email, social media, etc. to current GAL
volunteers to encourage them to step up to a volunteer leader role
 Flyers are one page, bright, visually appealing, and easy to read

17.
Create recognition tool for current GAL
Volunteer Leaders
 Took shape in the form of a newsletter template
 Can be easily filled in by GAL to showcase/recognize GAL Volunteer Leaders
and get their input and point of view
 Intent is to both recognize the leaders and encourage others to become a
volunteer leader

18.
Accomplishments – as noted by our GAL
sponsors
 Combined Friends and Recruiter position due
to the recognition of overlapping roles
 Clearly defined roles and responsibilities of
Friends/Recruiter Team Leader
 Clearly outlined Rap session team leader
responsibility to encourage more volunteers to
accept this role
 Organized existing Mentor training information
and encouraged additional Mentor training
classes that had been deficient for our
Program
 Implemented a schedule for volunteers to
complete training steps necessary in the
required timeframe to ensure their ability to
seamlessly transition to their chosen team
leader role

19.
Accomplishments – as noted by our GAL
sponsors
 Early identification of a progression ladder to ready volunteers
for transition into volunteer leader roles
 Reviewing current volunteer spreadsheet and formed a
timeframe for reaching out to all potential team leaders
 Provided our Program with ideas to “coach up” for potential
team leaders
 Volunteering at the Superhero Run
 Reviewing the GAL/Friends newsletter with suggestions on how
to recognize team leaders
 Plan to recognize team leaders informally (through e-mails,
personal thank you) and also encouraged the GAL Program to
recognize team leaders formally at GAL events
 Ideas to provide Team leaders with badges, pins and other
items to recognize their status.
 Plan to provide tools for success of various roles

20.
Superhero 5K
 Our team had an awesome time supporting & participating in the GAL annual
“Superhero 5K”

21.
Questions??
Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a
better tomorrow.
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam